ALSphere Foundation
Gender (In)Equality
“Sit,” my mother gestured towards the floor.
‘Why on the floor? Everyone else was seated on chairs?’ I spoke to myself.
The man in the daring green-coloured shirt, my potential groom, grinned at me. His mother began observing me with an eagle eye.
The father seemed unperturbed by his wife’s behaviour and munched the savouries, while she, like a recruiter, bawled questions. I answered without a fuss, determined to keep Mom smiling, despite the discomfort.
“We like the girl,” they declared.
“I didn’t like the boy,” I spoke up for myself despite the pressure.
I had finally found my voice!
Sudha Viswanath
Hospital Scene
When he was a teenager, he knew that he wanted to study medicine, to become a doctor, trying to eliminate pain and suffering, hoping to give people a healthier life. Today he stood next to the patient’s bed, ready to do whatever he had to, knowing it would ease the pain, yet reading the anxiety of the elderly patient.
What if it was him in that bed? Would he feel the same? In pain, and worried about what the next treatment was going to be? Would he trust a stranger? Would this stranger ease his pain and end his suffering?
Jellie N.Wyckelsma
